Postpartum Meal Idea: Chicken Alfredo, etc.

Food. Is it love or is it an art? I haven’t decided…perhaps it’s both!

I love to cook and pray over the recipients while I do it. For their healing, for encouragement to their souls, for the new adjustments within their family that have to be made, for the awesome-yet-daunting task of parenthood in general.

If my clients happen to have any kind of produce and staple ingredients in their cabinet, I can whip up just about anything…if they want it, that is! Not everybody wants someone else in their kitchen, and that’s totally ok! It’s there if they want it so the least I can do is offer.With health department regulations, food services that are paid for have to be either cooked in the client’s home or cooked in a certified kitchen. So for simplicity’s sake, since cooking is a little side perk of hiring this particular doula and not my main job, I do it at my client’s home. Maybe when I get old and tired of going to births in the middle of the night, I’ll turn this into my main business! Who knows!

When I do this for family and friends, I double what I’m making for my own family. Everything goes in disposable containers or stuff that doesn’t have to be returned. The picture above is a super easy way to share a salad with someone….Take out half the lettuce from a container of greens, add in your toppings, bag up anything that should be separate until they put it on their plates, and close up the container.

Make sure you label anything with instructions for reheating, as shown in that first picture. It’s hard to think of what to do when you’re a postpartum mom or if you’re someone else in the household who doesn’t cook often! Throw in some paper plates and plastic utensils for an added bonus. The fewer dishes they have to deal with, the better! (You can get biodegradable stuff if you feel guilty about trashing the earth.)

Steamed carrots with a few pats of butter and a drizzle of honey. Sprinkle sea salt on top for an amazing sweet-n-salty combination – and so easy, too!

Check for food allergies/sensitivities, and dislikes before you plan something. Definitely make sure you know if they are vegan/vegetarian or gluten-free before you cook. Load up on protein and iron-rich foods for that mama to help in her recovery!

You might also ask a not-first-time-mom if there are any other foods you should avoid that she knows caused her baby problems last time. For me personally, I cooked up a ton of freezer meals for after my second birth, but avoided broccoli (gave my first one painful, screaming gas) and tomato sauce (gave my first one painful, screaming butt rash). Some moms know they had issues with wheat or cow milk proteins in their breast milk, so they might tell you to avoid it.

Grilled Chicken Alfredo – yes that’s heart pasta because it’s Valentine’s Day! I marinated and grilled the chicken over the weekend alongside my family’s dinner, then used a cheater sauce from a jar. Those jarred things almost always need an extra boost of flavor, so I added some additional Italian spice mix, salt, and cream. Spoon a bit of the starchy, used pasta water into the sauce to get it to stick better to the pasta. Top with fresh-grated Asiago or Parmesan cheese.

Did you know you can order groceries for pickup from some of our local grocery stores?

Price Cutter does this! Pull right up to the store and drive away with your online order. Only certain stores have pickup, so be sure you know ahead of time.

Hyvee offer this service. Check with their sites because there is usually a small additional fee for online shopping with pickup.

Walmart is also starting to test a service like this in some stores across the country. Lucky you if you live near one of them! I also just saw a commercial where you could order things online for delivery to your door without any kind of membership fee.

You can also order from Target’s small selection of groceries and even have it delivered!

And if you haven’t heard about Amazon’s service called Amazon Prime Now, check it out. Groceries. To your door. Within hours. (Sadly, not in Southwest Missouri yet!) You can also sign up for their regular Prime membership and get non-refrigerated staples delivered within a couple of days (or pay for fast shipping without the Prime membership).

If your favorite store doesn’t have this service, ask them if they can start! If their customers keep asking, they may eventually do it. But please don’t get out and expend energy on grocery shopping yourself – have someone else do it for you! All that energy you’ll spend walking around a store and trying to manage a newborn could be going to repairing your body parts from birth, making more blood for that which was lost, and making milk for your baby.

Do you know of any other grocery stores that do online shopping and/or pickup and/or delivery? Comment below and share the knowledge!